The Future of Nature: Sarapiqui
FANE team Kyla Bruff, Sean McGrath, Barry Stephenson, and Joachim Rathmann will be travelling to the Sarapiqui region of Costa Rica in April, 2024, to co-organize the “The Future of Nature: Sarapiqui” event. This interdisciplinary outreach event in environmental ethics and sustainability will bring together local farmers, ecotourism providers, entrepreneurs, government representatives, educators, industry workers, and crafters in the region to enter into dialogue with Costa Rican and international academics in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Discussions and presentations will focus on the topics of agriculture, ecotourism, and water supply and access in the Sarapiqui, highlighting local epistemologies and collaboration toward a sustainable future. After the event, we plan to produce a white paper with policy recommendations, a summary of the joint vision, a website, a documentary film, and more!
The Future Nature: Sarapiqui Event Schedule
Register for the Event
Our Objectives
The Future of Nature: Sarapiqui aims to bridge gaps between local stakeholders (in the agriculture and tourism sectors, the arts, government, and more) and academics to mobilize knowledge within the environmental industry, environmental public affairs, artistic expression, and local knowledges and to promote a deeper understanding of the impacts of ecotourism within the local Sarapiqui region of Costa Rica and the broader community. We also aim to build connections between Carleton University, the National University of Costa Rica (UNA), Memorial University, the University of Costa Rica (UCR), the University of Würzburg, and the University of Cordoba to open possibilities for future collaborations on sustainable, environmental, industry-related, and community-engaged.
The Future of Nature: Sarapiqui 2024 Sponsors
About The Future Nature Initiative (FNI)
Integral Ecology in Practice
The Future Nature Initiative stages ecological interventions in significant land and seascapes by creating an open and celebratory atmosphere for all involved. FNI is animated by the assumption that experiential learning, performance, and art are a necessary means through which new ideas, values, and attitudes are created, tested, and, importantly, embodied.
"How do you change the way the world thinks and acts? By breaking down barriers, between disciplines, between academics and the general public, between communities, between human beings and nature.""
Through knowledge mobilization and public engagement, coupled with experiential learning and the arts, the Future Nature Initiative aims at nothing less than ecological conversion. It is not enough to talk about the challenges facing the earth over the coming years; we must learn new patterns of behavior, imagine alternative models of production and exchange, engage the senses, and intimately acquaint individuals and groups with local environments and cultures.